Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds have had a busy few years. The funds have been on a huge investment spree beyond the Gulf, with tech a particular focus. Turns out not all those investments are quite going to plan.
On the global stage, few have been as active in flaunting their cash in recent years as the Middle East's most powerful money men. Leaders of , or PIF, and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala — sovereign wealth funds that oversee assets worth more than $1 trillion combined — have been on a busy investment spree beyond the Gulf region to stake a claim in whatever takes their fancy. Data published last month by , a platform tracking sovereign-wealth-fund activity, found that more than half the $96 billion invested by state-backed funds globally in the first six months of 2024 came from Middle Eastern funds.
A particular focus for these funds built on the back of petrodollars has been to build ownership and influence in the tech sector. Mandates to diversify their economies at home through initiatives such as have created incentives to bet on those with an eye to the future. In 2017, both funds made a collective commitment of $60 billion to , the world's biggest venture capital vehicle that would go on to transform the world of startup investing with bets on companies like TikTok owner ByteDance and Uber.
More recently, PIF and Mubadala have been busy making tech bets of their own, pouring billions of dollars into everything from electric vehicle companies to .